Report: Benghazi attack preventable

The report cautions that no one in the intelligence community was aware of specific plans for the Sept. 11 attack before it happened. A source in Libya did try to contact Libyan officials hours before the attack, the report states, but the Libyan officials were out of the country.

Addressing some of the most controversial elements surrounding the attack, the report finds that there were no military assets positioned in a place where they could have saved the Americans killed in the attack. Republicans, including several on the House Oversight Committee, have accused the administration of failing to deploy a military response to save those Americans while the compound was under attack.

Text Size

-

+

reset

The report states that the military attempted to move some assets, but only an unmanned drone was able to make it in time.

“The committee has reviewed the allegations that U.S. personnel, including the [intelligence community] or [Department of Defense], prevented the mounting of any military relief during the attacks, but the committee has not found any of these allegations to be substantiated,” the report states.

The report also addresses the controversial talking points that were used by then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday morning news shows days after the attack. Republicans have charged that the administration engaged in a political ploy when it changed talking points and stated the attack was prompted by a protest in response to an anti-Islam video. The report finds that the intelligence picture created after the attack was what contributed to the talking points.

“In intelligence reports after September 11, 2012, intelligence analysts inaccurately referred to the presence of a protest at the U.S. mission facility before the attack based on open source information and limited intelligence, but without sufficient intelligence or eyewitness statements to corroborate that assertion,” according to a summary of the report released by the Intelligence Committee. “The [intelligence community] took too long to correct these erroneous reports, which caused confusion and influenced the public statements of policymakers.”

Republican critics of the administration’s handling of the attack dismissed the report’s findings as lacking all the necessary facts to reach a conclusion. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said the administration has been involved in a “cover-up” to keep the facts from coming to light.

”There is never a shortage of bipartisanship when we don’t have all the facts,” Gohmert told reporters at a conservative event on Wednesday.

The report includes 18 recommendations to prevent future attacks. The committee conducted dozens of interviews and reviewed thousands of pages of intelligence, most of it behind closed doors.

“The committee’s bipartisan report provides many needed and deserved answers to the American people, and most importantly, to the families of those killed in the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), the ranking Republican on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

Among the recommendations for the intelligence community was that American agencies should more closely monitor the social media streams of extremist groups.

The report also recommends that no facility in a dangerous area should be allowed to operate unless full security measures have been taken.